By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Most grades in the Forrest City School District showed improvement over last year on the Stanford Achievement Test, Edition 9, given at the beginning of May, with the first grade showing an 11-point improvement.
Phyllis Russell, test coordinator for the district, said the purpose of the spring test is to see how well all the students in grades 1-10 are doing. The state requires that the SAT 9 be given to grades 5, 7 and 10 in September.
The district and the state give different versions of the same test.
"This (the spring test) is district testing, that the Forrest City School District does. It is not required by the state department," said Russell. "The reason we give this test is for diagnostic purposes. Just to see how we're doing and see what we need to do to improve."
She said the administration and the teachers will use the information from the spring testing to plan instruction for the 2001-2002 school year. The testing is done is several areas, including reading, math, language arts, study skills and listening skills. Teachers will receive printouts which not only break down the scores by subject, but will also break down the scores further to show how each student did in specific skill areas within each subject.
"When school starts this fall, the teachers will look at this information for individual students, to see what areas they need to work on," Russell said. "It shows where the students are and where they need to go from there. It's not necessarily remediation, because we've got lots of students who don't need remediation. But teachers still need to know what skills the students have."
The test results are based on a national percentile. Compared to last year, students showed improvement in seven of 10 grades tested.
First graders showed the most improvement, jumping from a 48 percentile to 59. Second graders went from 45 to 52. The third grade improved from 38 to 44 percentile. Fourth graders fell from 42 to 39 percentile. Fifth grade students improved from 37 percentile to 40. Sixth graders also improved, going from 41 to 42 percentile.
The biggest decrease in scores occurred in the seventh grade, which fell from 36 to 29 percentile. Eighth graders improved from 35 to 41 percentile, ninth graders slipped from 39 to 36 percentile and 10th graders improved from 33 to 35 percentile.
While Russell said she couldn't account for the drop in seventh grade scores, she said the district has made some changes, which may account for the jump in first grade scores.
"That could be attributed to class size reduction in the first grade," she said. "We don't know for sure, but it possibly could be attributed to that. We reduced class size across the district in the first grade."
She said this was made possible because of class size reduction money through a federal grant. The state requires a maximum class size of 23 in the first grade, and the federal funding allows the school district to go beyond that.
"The classes this year were anywhere from 14 to about 17," she said, agreeing that this resulted in more individualized attention for students. "We've actually added five new first grade teachers through this class size reduction money."
She said there are also three literacy coaches working this year with kindergarten and first grade teachers, paid for with state poverty index money. There are also additional materials and supplies.
There is also the CCC program, which is a computer software program purchased with poverty index funds. These programs help the kids in reading and math.
"Five computers have been added to each first grade classroom," she added. "They were actually added last year but it was late in the year. We didn't get a full year's use out of them last year."
She said there were some smaller class sizes last year but not as many.
The Forrest City School Board will meet this evening at 5:30 in the administration building on Rosser Street.
Agenda items will include changes in the personnel policy manual and a report on the new junior high school building project.
Also on the agenda are the salary schedule, heat pump bids and several other items.
In other meetings planned for tonight, the Forrest City Civic Center Commission is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. at the civic center.
In city council meetings, the Widener City Council will meet at 6 p.m., and the Madison and Hughes city councils will meet at 7 p.m. Each meeting will be held at that city's city hall.
On Tuesday, the Forrest City Advertising and Promotions Commission is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. at the Forrest City Area Chamber of Commerce office.
The Palestine and Caldwell city councils are scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. at each city's city hall.
The Hughes School Board will meet at 7:30 p.m. at the school.
On Thursday, the East Arkansas Community College Board of Trustees are scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. in the college board room, and the Wheatley City Council is set to meet at 8 p.m. at city hall.
There will be an Adventure Day Camp for children ages 10 - 12 offered at Village Creek State Park on Wednesday, June 27 through Friday, June 29, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The day camp will give children the opportunity to learn about pioneers, Native Americans and the natural world and will consist of educational programs, crafts, games, story telling, horseback riding and other recreational activities.
Parents are to bring children to the visitor center at 8 a.m. and pick them up at 5 p.m. each day of the program.
The fee is $65 for the program and includes meals, snacks, instructors, materials and use of equipment. Children must be pre-registered by Friday, June 22 to attend.
For more information, contact the park at 870-238-9406.